Learning to share the story of flight between two states
Given all this attention to one Ohioan’s epic space flight, there might be an uptick in interest in the two Ohioans who helped him get there. And just as Ohio and Florida will be celebrating the same event, Ohio shares the story of the Wright brothers’ first flight with North Carolina.
A little less than 50 years ago, a quiet Ohioan named Neil Armstrong went to Florida, climbed into a rocket with two crewmates and blasted off for the moon. Four days later, he became the first human to walk on another world.
The anniversary of the first moon landing doesn’t come until July, but Americans are already celebrating it with “First Man,” Damien Chazelle’s new film starring Ryan Gosling as Armstrong. In Wapakoneta, Armstrong’s hometown, the Armstrong Air and Space Museum recently broke ground on a muchneeded expansion, and the town is planning a series of events to mark the anniversary. Florida’s Space Coast is likewise planning a series of events between July 16, when the flight began, through July 20, the date of the moon landing.
Given all this attention to one Ohioan’s epic space flight, there might be an uptick in interest in the two Ohioans who helped him get there. And just as Ohio and Florida will be celebrating the same event, Ohio shares the story of the Wright brothers’ first flight with North Carolina.
Nothing illustrates the shared nature of this story quite so well as the recent makeovers of two museums in two states, each one dedicated to the Wright brothers.
On Aug. 31, Dayton History reopened its aviation center at Carillon Historical Park as the federally designated John W. Berry, Sr. Wright Brothers National Museum. Less than eight weeks later, the National Park Service on Oct. 20 reopened the Wright Brothers National Memorial’s restored and enhanced visitor center at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina.
It was Alex Heckman, Dayton History’s vice president for museum operations, who pointed out the significance of the closely timed unveilings.
“This is an amazing year for the story and legacy of the Wrights,” Heckman said. Such nearly simultaneous openings of different museums dedicated to the same subject are uncommon, but “the Wright story is anything but common,” he said.
Wilbur and Orville lived in Dayton and built their first airplanes in their bicycle shop on West Third Street. They chose to make their first tests at Kitty Hawk, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, because it offered extra lift from steady winds and softer landings on sandy ground. Local residents welcomed them and often gave a hand as they tested a series of gliders between 1900 and 1903, leading up to the world’s first successful flights of a powered machine on Dec. 17, 1903.
The two museums share another connection: the National Park Service. Dayton History’s museum is a privately owned and operated unit of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, a collection of several Dayton-area sites related to the Wright brothers. The park service owns and operates the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk.
In fact, Dayton’s national park supported the development of new exhibits for the visitor center at Kitty Hawk. Edward Roach, the national park’s historian, and Ranger Ryan Qualls worked extensively with the national memorial’s staff and contractors to review the new exhibits as they were developed.
Qualls said the new exhibits replace those made in the 1960s and tell a story that includes both Dayton and Kitty Hawk. “The larger story is about individuals overcoming what seemed like insurmountable obstacles” and are designed to help visitors relate the Wright brothers’ experiences to their own lives, he said. Qualls represented Dayton’s national park at the reopening ceremony.
Likewise, the Wright Brothers National Museum exhibits in Dayton include artifacts important to the Kitty Hawk story, including the camera that snapped the famous picture of Orville’s firs t powered flight. Its centerpiece, the original 1905 Wright Flyer III, flew in both places.
Ohio can’t claim exclusive rights to the story of the Wright brothers any more than it can claim the rights to Neil Armstrong’s. These stories too big for any single place or state to claim. But that’s good, because Ohio figures importantly in both of them.
And the more places that want to tell these stories, the better for Ohio.